You are here

On loving Boston

Boston is a city that does not show its cards right away. It is a place that you need to spend time getting to know. As a student, I would walk around the city and "get lost" on purpose. I was able to discover the little pocket parks of Post Office Square, Louisburg Square, and Ramler Park dispersed all over the city. One of the first times I began wandering around the city as a freshman, I found myself walking down Huntington Ave towards the Prudential. As I walked beside the historic Symphony Hall, I saw a glimpse of a tree lined "street". As you walk down the tree street, an overwhelming sense of relaxation takes over. The stresses of being away from my family and all of my school work was immediately subdued.

The trees are causing the sidewalk to heave in excess of the grades permitted for accessibility. The trees will be cut down and replaced with saplings to allow the sidewalk to be repaired into compliance.

Mind you none of the buildings on this exclusively residential block are accessible to begin with.

really, that's it? the sidewalk width/slope is closer to ada on that street than most i have lived on in this city, including my current street in JP. But I have to think there is more to it than that. Is it tied to a utility infrastructure project? Are they all ash trees? If they are piloting a new ADA-compliance streetscape initiative this doesn't bode well for our urban forest and the many things it ties into: our air quality, and our electric bills in the summer, tree related fauna and fowl (and the varmints that they eat).

Can you give more information on this project? I can't find anything online about it

Contact the Parks Department. Don't think this has ever been reported in a paper.

Because the street and most of the sidewalks were recently rebuilt it triggered a compliance requirement.

If you have ever walked down that block of St. Stephen you would understand why this is a major issue for the residents and for accessibility advocates. Prior to the rebuild with temporary asphalt ramps the sidewalks were heaving up to create 8 inch steps at the root locations. But the street is beautiful with a fully canopy of remarkably healthy and beefy ~30 year old street trees. Easy to see both sides of the issue.

When I first read the thread, I was wondering how the space I wrote about was inaccessible, and then realized everyone thought I was describing a different â€śtree streetâ€ť. In my post I wrote about a tree lined â€śstreetâ€ť, the location I was describing is the tree path near the Christian Science Center adjacent to the pool.

Iâ€™m glad my post was able to help you think of a location similar to the one I described, that you have personally experienced!

I agree, St. Stephen Street is pretty inaccessible to someone able bodied, let alone someone in a wheelchair or a walker. This has been happening all over the city, established trees heaving sidewalks. Prior to the renovation of the Isabella Steward Garden Museum, some of the trees along Evans Way were removed because the sidewalks heaved over a foot in elevation making it impossible to easily walk.

I looked on Google Maps, and here is a link that you can see where the heaving on St. Stephen Street is taking place.